Chapter 17

Robin and Claudia sat in the back of the car. They made it to the mall, and the drama had already started in the parking lot. Billy was in his car, headed straight for Nancy, who was unsuccessfully shooting at him.

Steve sped up, slamming right into Billy. “Holy shit!” Claudia screamed, placing a hand on her chest to make sure her heart was still beating.

“You two okay?” Steve asked.

“Ask me tomorrow?” Robin answered. Claudia said nothing, she was too busy trying to catch her breath. They looked up at the roof, where the creature stood snarling. “Holy shit,” Robin said.

Nancy beeped her horn. “Get in!” She said. They wasted no time getting into the other car, watching as the creature chased after them.

——————————

“Dusty-bun, you copy?” A voice sounded through the walkie.

“I copy, Suzie-poo,” Dustin said, “It sounds much better now, thanks.”

“Suzie,” Robin, Claudia and Steve said.

“Okay, so, listen, do you know Planck’s constant?”

“Do you know the Earth orbits the sun?”

“Okay, so I know it starts with two sixes, and then a… W-What is it?”

“Okay, let me just be clear on this. I haven’t heard from you in a week and now you want a mathematical equation that you should know, so you can save the world?”

“Suzie-poo, I promise I will make it up to you as soon as possible.”

“You can make it up to me know.”

“What?”

“I want to hear it.”

“Not right now.”

“Yes, now, Dusty-bun.”

“Suzie-poo, this is urgent.”

“Yes, yes, you’re saving the world, I heard you the first time, but Ged is also saving Earthsea and he’s about to confront he shadow, so this is Suzie, signing off.”

“Wait, wait, wait! Okay, okay. Okay.”

There was a moment of silence, before Dustin’s voice again sounded through the walking, singing the them tune for the Neverending Story. “Okay, favourite film is ruined,” Claudia complained.

When the song was over, Suzie finally gave Dustin what he needed. “Planck’s constant is 6.62607004.”

“You just saved the world.”

——————————

The three in the back watched as the creature stopped following them, going back in the direction of the mall. “It’s turning around!” Steve said.

“Maybe we wore it out,” Lucas suggested.

“I don’t think so,” Jonathon said, “Hold on.” He turned the car around quickly, following the creature.

Claudia learnt that they’d previously brought fireworks, and creatures from the Upside Down didn’t like fire.  And that was their plain in motion. Blow the sucker up.

“Flay this, you ugly piece of shit!” Lucas yelled, throwing a firework right into the creatures mouth. They all threw their fireworks, successfully distracting the creature from El.

“This is kinda fun,” Claudia said.

“It’s pretty,” Robin said.

“You’re pretty.”

“Not the time, love birds!” Steve groaned.

As the creature got hurt, so did Billy. The fireworks whistled as the creature screeched, and Billy yelled out in pain. That didn’t stop him from grabbing El when she tried to make her escape.

They slowly began to run out of fireworks. “Dustin! We’re out of time!” Steve yelled into the walkie.

“Hurry! Close it now! Close it!” Dustin screamed to Joyce, Hopper and Murray.

They finally ran out of fireworks, and Billy stood up, leaving El lying on the floor. “What’s he doing?” Claudia asked.  The creature shit one of its arms out at El, but Billy grabbed it.

“He’s protecting her,” Robin answered.

The creature dug it’s claws into Billy, from all sides. There was no surviving that. “Close it now! Close it!” Dustin’s voice sounded again through the walkie.

The creature roared, and Billy screamed at the top of his lungs until he was finally shut up by the final claw plunging into his chest. Claudia’s jaw dropped and her eyes widened.

Billy was never someone she’d been fond of. He was close friends with Daniel, and probably one of his biggest influences. But seeing someone, anyone, in that situation. Controlled, helpless. That’s what got to her. She could never imagine how Max felt when she screamed his name.

“Billy!”

It was so painful. Gut-wrenching. He own brother died protecting her best friend. He had no choice of whether the Flayer killed him. His death was inevitable. But he did have s choice on whether or not to protect them, to protect El, and he did.

The creature snarled, smashing into the balcony, before finally falling to the ground. It was dead, it was over. It let out one last, weak sound, before finally being put to rest. Everything was quiet.

They watched as Max ran to Billy, begging him to get up, but he never did. Claudia let a singular tear she’d from her eye, which Steve wiped away as Robin wrapped her hands around her waist from behind her, resting her chin on her shoulder.

“It’s done, now,” Robin reassured her, “It’s over, okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah, it’s over.”

Helicopters and ambulances were quick to arrive at the scene after the incident, and in the Russian base. It was passed off as a mall fire. Of course, they could tell anyone about the ‘curse of Hawkins’ being a real thing. Everyone would freak.

Robin and Claudia sat in the back of one of the ambulances, watching as El found out that Hopper was dead. No one needed to say anything. He wasn’t there, he wasn’t with Joyce, and that was enough to indicate that he hadn’t made it.

What he had done, was save them. For now.

——————————

Three months later, Robin, Claudia and Steve were back job hunting. “You put your mom down as a reference?” Robin asked Steve, looking at his résumé.

“Yeah. Why not? She’s, like, super well-respected,” Steve replied.

“You’re such a dingus,” Claudia said.

They walked into Family Video. “Uh, just to be clear, we weren’t fired, you know? The mall burned down and, like, killed a bunch of people,” Robin said.

“Thanks for sharing,” Keith said, “Didn’t know. Three favourite movies, go.”

“Uh, The Apartment, Hidden Fortress, Children of Paradise.”

“You, go,” he pointed to Claudia.

“Um, Halloween, Grease and A Star Is Born. I would say the Never ending Story, but that kinda got ruined for me by a pair of thirteen year olds, so.”

“You, go,” he pointed to Steve.

“Favourite movies?” Steve asked.

“Did I stutter?”

“Uh… Animal House, for sure. Um…”

“Eyes on me Harrington.”

“Yeah. Uh… Star Wars.”

“A new hope?”

“A new what now?”

“Which Star Wars?”

“The one with the teddy bears. Duh,” Steve squealed like an Ewok, “No? Uh… Oh, the one that just came out. The movie that just came out. The one with the DeLorean and Alex P Keaton and he’s trying to bang his mom. The time… Yeah, those are my top three. Classics.”

“You two start Monday,” he pointed to the girls, then at Steve, “You start never.”

“Will you just, um, will you give us a minute?”
Robin asked Steve.

“Why?”

“Steve,” Steve yanked his résumé, walking away. “Alright, you have to understand, Keith, I know his taste is a bit pedestrian, but the dingus has other qualities.”

“He’s a douchebag of the highest order, Robin,” Keith said.

“Can’t argue with that,” Claudia said.

“He was a bit of a prick to us in school, I’ll grant you that, but he remains… a total chick magnet.”

“Yeah, okay, and this is relevant to me how?”

“Uh, Earth to Keith. The ladies will come in just to see him. They’ll come in in droves. Droves, Keith. We sold so much ice cream, they had to get a second shipment in from Michigan. Goddamn Michigan, Keith. And these ladies… these ladies are hot.”

“They are so, very hot,” Claudia said, “And there are too many of them for little Steve. He needs assistance. He needs your assistance, Keith.”

“What’s in it for you guys? You got a thing for him or something?”

“We’re just um… we’re just friends.”

And so, the three of them got the job, thinking that all was now well in Hawkins. Little did they know that they’d soon be interrupted in their place of work again. Not in search of evil Russians, but in search of someone else: Reefer Rick.

END OF PART ONE